Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) reaffirmed his disapproval of the U.S. report on Israeli war actions that was published last week.
The State Department released a report late Friday night concluding that it was “reasonable to assess” that Israel has violated international humanitarian law during its activities in Gaza. However, the report did not definitively state any wrongdoing.
Van Hollen stated on Friday that the report was “woefully inadequate” and repeated this critique of the report on Sunday’s “Face the Nation” on CBS.
“I am concerned that by not providing a straightforward account of the facts and the law, we have essentially indicated that what is happening in Gaza — for example, the obstruction of humanitarian aid delivery since the start of the war — by not clearly addressing that and stating that there have been arbitrary restrictions on it, I am concerned that we have set a very low bar, a very low standard for what’s acceptable,” he said on “Face the Nation.”
“And I think that will come back to haunt us,” he added.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken also spoke on CBS’s “Face the Nation” about the recent review from the State Department, saying that it’s “reasonable to assess that in a number of instances, Israel has not acted in a manner that’s consistent with international humanitarian law.”
Van Hollen responded to Blinken’s comments on Sunday as well.
“So while I appreciate the fact that as Secretary Blinken said, the administration determined that it was reasonable to conclude that violations of international law had had happened, I think there’s enough on the books to be able to point to specific cases and make specific determinations and on that score, the administration did not ask the hard questions,” he said.
